


Upon This Rock I Build My Church

by buzzedbee20



Category: White Collar
Genre: Etymology, Families of Choice, First Dates, Frenemies, Friendship, Gen, LGBTQ Character, Learning to Work Together, Peter Burke is everyone's dad, Peter Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 12:09:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8800279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buzzedbee20/pseuds/buzzedbee20
Summary: A study of etymology and relationships.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by, but not containing, religious themes. Also I don't own White Collar.

After the Caffrey recon meeting was over and the sting was planned, the agents began to clear out of the conference room. But Peter needed to have one more conversation. “Berrigan.”

“Yes sir?” Diana said nervously. “Do you need something?”

“My office,” he replied and went in that direction without waiting for her.

What could she have done? She had thought that the meeting went well, and it even seemed like it was her idea that led to the plan which concluded the meeting. So what could her superior want with her?

In the few seconds that it took her to follow Peter Burke, he had sat behind his desk and motioned for her to do the same. She sat in the visitor’s chair and waited for him to say something, but he seemed lost in thought, looking past her.

“Sir?”

“Agent Berrigan. In the meeting, after I asked you your opinion, you said something that I’d like to clarify.”

Oh, so that was it. Burke must have heard the girlfriend comment.

“I said if I was on the run, you would stake out my girlfriend.”

“Implying that you’re…”

“A lesbian, yes.” If this guy was a homophobe she wouldn’t be able to work under him. He was probably calling her in his office to tell her ‘thanks for the intel, now get out of my division.’ It would hurt, especially since she really liked not only the white collar division, but Burke himself as the Special Agent in Charge.

Before her thoughts could spiral down further, Burke spoke again, bringing her back to the present. “Agent Berrigan?”

“Yes sir?” She tried to school her features into something nonchalant, but from his face she could tell that she didn’t succeed.

“I was just saying that I wanted to verify that with you personally, and to assure you that your orientation won’t affect anything about the job you do here. You’ve done some good work today, and I can tell you’re smart. You keep that up and you might become a permanent fixture in my team. Now go help agent Jones figure out how to plant the intel for Caffrey.”

Diana’s mood shifted from fear to giddiness. “Yes sir, thank you sir,” she said trying not to smile too big. She knew she liked Burke for a reason.

A few weeks later, Caffrey was caught and the White Collar team moved on to other cases. Diana more or less forgot about the conversation between she and Peter Burke, as she learned the various functions of the office and found her place within it. 

She forgot about it, until a new agent named Jenson Whitman transferred in.

At first, everything with Whitman was going fine, he was just another coworker. He wasn’t really on Diana’s radar. But one night in the van put her on his, and he began a relentless flirting campaign. She tried to tell him she wasn’t interested, she tried avoiding him; she even told him point blank that she was a lesbian, but nothing seemed to work. He seemed to always be near her. 

Walking by her desk in the middle of the day, bringing her coffee in the van, asking for her advice during meetings and a host of other small annoying things; ignorable on their own, but harassing when continued relentlessly for weeks.

Part of her was sure that if she said something to Agent Burke he would talk to Whitman and maybe get him to back off. But she didn’t want to seem like she was complaining, especially still being semi-new to the office, and he was never physical with her, just extremely annoying and irksome. Diana would keep ignoring him, and eventually Whitman would get bored.  
Whitman did not get bored, in fact, he got aggressive.

Diana was making her way to the copy room when he rounded the corner and blocked her entrance.  
“Ah, there’s my beautiful berry, Agent Berrigan. So Diana, where would you like to go on our date tonight?”

“I told you Whitman, I’m not interested.”

“And I told you,” he said, grabbing her arm as she tried to walk past, “to call me Jen.”

Diana turned to him with steel in her eyes. “Listen, Jen. I’m not interested in men. And even if I was, I would never consort with scum like you.”

His demeanor instantly changed. “Oh, so that’s how you see me? After all the chances I’ve given you?” He towered over her and made to grab her other arm, but he grossly underestimated her self-defense skills. Diana dropped her papers and broke his hold effortlessly, yanking his arm behind his back painfully and slamming him into the copier. “Listen you piece of scum-”

“HEY!”

Diana turned her head to see Peter Burke stalking quickly over to the both of them. She released Whitman and they both turned to face the Agent who looked about as angry and enraged as Diana had ever seen him. This was it, she was about to lose her job.

“Uh, sir I-I can explain,” she started once he had arrived to assess the situation.

“Berrigan, back to your desk.” His tone left no room for interpretation or response, so she edged around him and did just that. She tried to focus on her work, but from the few eyes that followed her, she could tell that everyone was more interested in what was going to happen in the copy room.

They didn’t have to wait long, Agent Burke wasn’t known for speaking softly when he was angry.

“Whitman, I don’t care what you might want to say to me, or how you think I may have interpreted the situation I just walked in on. What I do know is that you’ve been harassing Agent Berrigan for the past few months, and frankly I’m goddamn tired of it. From this point on, you are no longer a part of my office or my team. SHUT your mouth. You go to your desk, you collect your things, and you get out of my sight. Tomorrow you will be having a meeting with myself and Assistant Director Hughes so he can decide on what to do with you. You’d better be glad it’s up to him and not me, but believe me if it was you’d be out of a badge right at this moment. Leave.”

He turned and left the copy room right as everyone else shook themselves out of their state of inertia and began working again as if nothing had happened. Burke stalked through the bullpen back to his office, and said “Berrigan, my office,” without breaking his stride as he walked past Diana’s desk. So now she was about to lose her job.

She tried to ignore the looks of the other agents as she slowly made her way to follow Burke. She closed the door behind her, but stayed near it; just in case he wanted to yell at her too, she could escape quickly once it was over.

“Sit down.” No such luck. She followed his command.

“Sir?”

Agent Burke didn’t reply, but first let out a long sigh that she couldn’t discern the meaning of. “Diana, I just want to know why this situation had to get so bad. Why you felt like you couldn’t come to me with this.”

The look on his face told her that far from being angry or disappointed with her, he was distressed over what had happened.

“I’m not sure I follow sir.”

“Whitman has been bothering you. I know it annoys you, and I could tell you were uncomfortable. I guess it’s my fault, I should have handled it sooner.”

This was not how she was expecting the conversation to go. “No sir! This could never be your fault! I didn’t want to say anything, because I didn’t want to bother you. I felt like I could handle it on my own. Whitman is an asshole, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. He was never physical, until...”

“Until today. Listen Diana, I know you’re a good and efficient agent, and you don’t like to make waves in the office. But it’s still my responsibility to protect you, both in the field and in the office. You might have started as just my probationary agent, but beyond that you’re one of my people, and I’d hate for you to feel so uncomfortable that you’d want to transfer out. I’m here to support you, no matter the consequence. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir, I do.” She definitely did. Peter Burke wasn’t just her boss, he was her leader, offering to shield her and help her through difficulties in her career both personal and professional.  
“Also, I’m getting tired of ‘sir’. I know I’m your superior, but ‘sir’ is starting to make me feel old. Let’s think of something else, huh?”

Diana offered him a wry smile before getting up. “You got it, boss.”


End file.
